Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the month “August, 2010”

20 Aug 2010
3 Comments

Nothing But Static on the Dial

With three pro sports teams in town, along with what is probably the largest Ohio State following outside of Columbus, you would think that we would have top-notch sports talk on the radio in Cleveland.

Well, think again. From the soupy drek of local and syndicated shows on WKNR, to what passes as sports talk in the afternoon on WTAM, Cleveland sports fans can be excused for asking “haven’t we suffered enough?”

The sad part is that it wasn’t always this way. I’m old enough to remember listening to Pete Franklin, who hosted Cleveland’s Sportsline radio show from 1966 to 1987 (if you can find Terry Pluto’s book on Franklin, You Could Argue But You’d Be Wrong, grab it).

Franklin knew what he was talking about, he had the ear of the fan and the local teams knew it. He could get 40,000+ fans into the old stadium by promoting I Hate the Yankees Night. He helped get the Cavs out of the grasp of Ted Stepien and worked to bring back Joe Tait.

Who in town has that kind of power today?

Now, if you want to talk sports on WKNR, you have to wait for the syndicated Mike and Mike Show (oof) to finish before Tony Rizzo comes on at 9 a.m., followed by more syndication with Jim Rome (why?) before Michael Reghi and Kenny Roda (double why?) come on at 3 p.m.

Think about that for a minute: in the 12-hour period from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., we only get six hours of local talk? You don’t think there’s enough going on sportswise in this town to warrant more than that?

Rizzo and Reghi are good examples of the current state of Cleveland radio – they’re both nice guys that are miscast in their current roles. Reghi is a solid announcer – I enjoy his work on MAC basketball – but not much of a talk show host. Same with Rizzo – he’s entertaining doing 4-5 minutes on the nightly news, but put him in front of a mike for three hours (well, more like 75 minutes when you factor in commercials, sports tickers, commercials going into and coming out of sports tickers) and there’s not enough there.

It’s not even worth talking about the abomination that is WTAM.

The big question in all of this is why? Why do Cleveland fans put up with this? Why don’t we demand quality? I can see where this may have worked in the ’70s, when WTAM’s signal was the only thing you could pick up on the radio and there were only five channels on the TV.

But in the age of The Well-Educated Fan, where all the sports information we could ever dream of is at our fingertips, why is this acceptable?

The one thing that saved my sports sanity was becoming a Sirius subscriber in 2005. No longer was I tied to dinosaur radio, and having a choice in what I listen to is wonderful. If you’ve never had a chance to hear real sports talk, take a listen to this clip from the NFL Channel’s Training Camp stop in Cleveland.

Maybe that’s the answer. If fans turn away and refuse to listen to what’s on local radio just because it’s there, if they go somewhere else – be it satellite radio, the Internet or wherever – then maybe we’ll finally get the level of sports talk radio we deserve.

Because, seriously, haven’t we suffered enough?

Posted in bad radio, Cleveland sports, suffering fanbase
18 Aug 2010

These guys might finally be catching on

A few months ago, some were calling the Browns receivers the worst in the league. Athlon Sports gave the group a grade of D, NFL.com ranks leading receiver Mohamed Massaquoi as the 58th best receiver in the league, and even the Madden football game gives them poor marks.

Now, as the team prepares for its second preseason game on Saturday against St. Louis, the perception is starting to slowly turn in the Browns’ favor.

Earlier this week, an article in Bleacher Report highlighted the progress shown by Brian Robiskie in the preseason opener against Green Bay:

“Robiskie … showed tremendous progression in year two and looked night and day better than last season,” Daniel Wolf wrote. “He showed crisp route running and was able to break free of coverage to find open spots on the field.

“Great hands allowed Robiskie to nearly get half of his total receptions (seven) in 2009 in this one preseason game with three catches for 32 yards and a touchdown.

“The touchdown was the icing on the cake and really showed that Robiskie understands what he needs to do on the field after running his route and when a play breaks down.”

Bleacher Report followed that up by saying the receivers are beginning to prove the doubters wrong during the Green Bay game:

“Perhaps it was just a figment of preseason smoke and mirrors, but the Browns receivers sure looked better than a collective destined to relive the shop of horrors that was our passing attack last season,” J Gatskie wrote. “Whether it was second year receiver Brian Robiskie running the precise routes he was touted for at Ohio State and hauling in three passes—including a touchdown on a laser from new quarterback Seneca Wallace—or tight end Evan Moore picking up where he left off in 2009 with three catches and forcing his way on the field despite the free agent signings of two formidable tight ends, the receivers for the most part looked very good against Green Bay.

“Twelve separate Browns caught passes against the Packers. The Browns had multiple games where the team didn’t total even 12 completions last year.”

Sure it was only one game, and a preseason one at that, but contrast that game with the horror show of last season and things are slowly starting to look up in Brownstown.

If the Browns can just get a competent level of production out of their receiving group this season – we’re not talking Air Coryell, just consistency – think what that will do for their rushing game. They finished 8th in the league last year in rushing while featuring an historically pathetic passing attack.

With an improved passing game, mixed with an already quality running game, the team just might have a passing chance this year.

Posted in Brian Robiskie, Cleveland Browns, Mohamed Massaquoi, passing attack | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2010

Hey, they’re actually pretty good

The Cavs unveiled their new uniforms today and, after thinking about it, they’re not all that bad.

According to the team: “The uniforms feature a deep wine and bright gold that echo the hues from the early 1970s, with a simplistic, yet bold, design and introduce several new and unique design elements. The front of the home white jersey displays a new official team wordmark Cavaliers in wine across the chest, and the front of the road wine jersey the new wordmark reads Cleveland in white.

“On both uniforms, special details make them distinctive. The Cavaliers DNA statement: ‘All for One. One for All’ is printed along the back of the inner-collar of the crew neck jersey, and the Cavaliers secondary logo ‘C-sword’ appears on both sides of the shorts.”

OK, so they’re not really out there, design wise, but they are certainly better than what the team wore a few years ago when they strangely went with a black-and-blue uniform combo.

The uniforms are clean, with a traditional, old-school look that actually fits in nicely with the other pro teams in town. The Browns have one of the best and most iconic uniforms in the NFL, if not all of sports; while the Indians (as long as they stay away from the blue softball tops) also have a nice old-school look, especially when they wear their cream-colored uniforms.

The new uniforms also got the Uni Watch seal of approval. But then Paul Lukas contradicted his own site in a posting today on ESPN.

Now if the Cavs could only come up with their own version of this for their third jersey, they’d really be cooking. That may be the sweetest jersey ever created and it would be fun to see what a Cleveland version would look like. More info on that particular jersey can be found here.

***

We could have used some of that motivation in Game 5, yes? Or perhaps a bit more maturity.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, new uniforms | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2010
2 Comments

What Makes a Good Owner?

Here in Cleveland, we want to classify the owners of the local sports teams with neat little labels.

The Dolans are “cheap.”

Randy Lerner “doesn’t care.”

Dan Gilbert is “a winner.”

Those are easy tags for the hoople heads to latch on to, and there’s something to be said for that. But are the labels accurate?

If winning championships is the only criteria, then every Cleveland owner since 1964 has failed. But is that fair? George Steinbrenner was hailed as a great owner by Yankee apologists because he was willing to do “whatever it took” to win. That overlooks the fact that in 2009 the Yankees had $441 million in revenue – $173 million more than the second-place team! Having that much of an advantage makes it a lot easier to do “whatever it takes.”

If you look deeper into the numbers, however, you find something interesting: in 2009 the Yankees spent 54 percent of their revenue on player salaries ($240 million on $441 million in revenue), while the Indians spent 53.5 percent of their revenue on salaries ($91 million on $170 million in revenue).

It appears that the Dolans may not be unwilling to spend to make the Indians a winner, but rather they are unable to spend to compete under the current system.

So does that make them cheap or bad owners? I don’t think so. It’s more that they, like other mid-market owners in Major League Baseball, are caught in a cycle that makes it next to impossible to compete.

What about Randy Lerner?

The Browns have been a mess since they returned in 1999 and Lerner has been the one constant. That’s certainly a huge negative against Lerner. Many wrongly believe because Lerner is in England on Saturday watching Aston Villa play, rather than sitting behind a desk in Berea, he’s indifferent about the Browns.

If we were still in the 1930s, when a trans-Atlantic crossing took weeks on a ship, that may be true. But when you can make a flight from London to Cleveland in 7-8 hours, there’s no reason Lerner can’t have a presence at both team’s games.

Many fans want Lerner to be more “hands on” to prove he is “passionate” about the Browns. Because he lets people do the job that they are hired for, without constantly interfering, he’s labeled as being apathetic about the team. But if you look around the NFL, hands-on owners are not what you necessarily want.

Consider Dan Snyder of the Redskins, for example. Snyder has been overly involved with the team since buying them in 1999. Since then, the Redskins have been to the playoffs only three times. The team has had six different head coaches, has spent a disproportionate amount of money on expensive free agents and has traded away draft picks to acquire stars, many of whom have fizzled in Washington. He’s also sued season-ticket holders who’ve lost their jobs.

How about Al Davis? He’s as hands-on as they come. Or Jerry Jones, who’s led the Cowboys to one more playoff win than the Browns since 1999? Are those the type of owner Browns fans want Lerner to be?

It seems extremely unlikely that Lerner doesn’t care about the Browns. The problem is more that he’s made some mistakes in his hiring.

That brings us to Gilbert, an owner who’s benefited the most from a perfect storm of circumstances.

Gilbert has spent money and that was made easier by the presence of LeBron James, having the smallest roster size of the three major sports and the ability to pad the bottom line with all the extra playoff games the Cavs have been in since he bought the team.

But that has to be balanced with the fact that he let LeBron essentially run the team, which as we’re learning this summer, wasn’t the best idea. That “all-in” mentality cost the team a GM and a coach this off-season and it still wasn’t enough to keep James in town.

It would appear that Gilbert is as much an opportunistic owner as a winning owner.

So what does this all mean? Just as there’s no one way to define what a “good” coach is, there’s no one true blueprint for finding the best owner. As fans, all we can ask is for our owners to spend money to try and keep the team competitive, hire the best people they can find for the job and stay out of the way.

And remember that perception isn’t reality.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Dan Gilbert, Dolans, hoople heads, Randy Lerner
15 Aug 2010

Thoughts on the Browns Exhibition Opener

Some thoughts on the Browns preseason opening win over Green Bay:

The Good:

  • Jake Delhomme looked sharp on the team’s opening drive; hitting 6-of-7 passes and keeping the team moving – and no penalties.
  • The offense looked like it actually had a plan, something that was not always the case last season.
  • The defense forced two turnovers.
  • The offense only gave up one sack.
  • Phil Dawson appeared to be in regular-season form, hitting two field goals – including a 58-yarder.
  • Seneca Wallace made nice plays on his two TD passes.
  • Rookie defensive backs Joe Haden and T.J. Ward got their first taste of game action and Ward showed off his tackling skills, especially when he stopped Donald Driver short of a first down.

The Bad:

  • With several new players seeing their first game action on defense, the Browns were beat up pretty good by Green Bay’s offense as the Packers had 22 first downs and 340 yards of total offense.
  • Ward was beaten by Greg Jennings on a 25-yard TD catch and couldn’t bring down John Kuhn on a short TD run.
  • The defense only recorded one sack.
  • Colt McCoy hurt his passing hand when he hit a lineman’s helmet.
  • Mohamed Massaquoi spent time on the bench with his knee being iced.

While the Browns struggled on defense, it’s really not all that bad or surprising. Green Bay has one of the better offenses in the league, they were ranked seventh in passing last year, and with all the new pieces on defense you’d expect some problems.

Conversely, Delhomme and Wallace combined to complete 10-of-15 passes for 138 yards and two TDs in less than one half of action against a defense that was ranked fifth against the pass last year.

It’s really hard to judge a team during the exhibition season, especially during the first game. You never know how much of their offensive or defensive packages the other team is running, or how much/how hard the team’s top players are working during a game.

Based on what the Browns showed on the field last night, the team definitely has something to build on as it heads toward the second exhibition game on Saturday.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Jake Delhomme, NFL, positive signs | Leave a comment
12 Aug 2010
2 Comments

In Defense of Randy Lerner

In the Premier League, not everyone is upset with Martin O’Neill’s decision to leave Randy Lerner’s Aston Villa. Least of all the players, who were reportedly texting each other images of champagne bottles after hearing the news.

Lerner issued a statement saying that he and O’Neill no longer “shared a common view” on the best direction for the club. Lerner planned to hold O’Neill to a budget, not allowing him to spend money on player transfers without selling a player first.

The Premier League is similar to Major League Baseball in that there is no salary cap, but all teams share in the TV revenue under the following system:

  • 25% is paid in merit payments determined by where a club finishes in the final league table;
  • 50% of the domestic revenue is split equally;
  • 100% of the non-domestic revenue is split equally among the clubs.
  • 25% is paid in facility fees, based on how often a club is shown on TV in the U.K., with each club guaranteed a minimum of 10 facility fees.

Every team gets a large share of the money pie, with Forbes reporting that, in 2009, Middlesborough received the smallest share (£30.9 million) while Manchester United received the largest (£51.1 million).

While £21 million is certainly a lot of money, it’s not on par with the differences in revenue between a team like the Yankees and the Indians. Even smaller-market teams can be competitive; it’s just not the big-market London clubs or Manchester United.

Aston Villa does take a hit at the gate, as Villa Park holds 42,500, compared to Old Trafford (76,000) or the Emirates Stadium (60,000) for example, which helps widen the gap a bit more.

One way to shrink the revenue gap is to qualify for the lucrative Champions League. O’Neill wasn’t able to break through – the team peaked at sixth place – and without the big payday and large crowds from Champions League games, Lerner has to keep an eye on the budget. Think about how much extra revenue the Indians used to produce when they routinely made the playoffs in the late ’90s – those extra dollars help.

O’Neill’s cries of not being allowed to spend money ring hollow, as he spent more than £120million on transfer fees alone for new signings during his four years at Villa Park and recouped just £39m in sales during that period – leaving him with a net loss of almost £82m.

Lerner is the best kind of owner, as he hires people and then lets them do their jobs without constantly micro-managing them. Some fans in Cleveland don’t understand that is a good thing, thinking that because Lerner doesn’t sit behind a desk every day in Berea that he “doesn’t care.”

It certainly is well within his rights to set a budget for the team. If O’Neill couldn’t deliver under those conditions, that’s on him, not Lerner.

I certainly don’t wish ill on Aston Villa fans, but if one of Lerner’s teams has to have coaching issues days before the season starts, better it be at Villa Park than at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Posted in Martin O'Neill, Premier League, Randy Lerner
11 Aug 2010

Psst, want to buy a soccer team?

With Saturday bringing the start of the new Premier League season, it’s been a good summer for Liverpool.

First Steven Gerrard, aka the anti-LeBron, recommitted to the team, then Fernando Torres, fresh off a World Cup victory with Spain, announced he was staying at Anfield. Rafa Benitez, his ego and odd player rotations are in Italy, replaced by Roy Hodgson.

And it looked like, at long last, the team would be rid of goofball owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who after running the team into the ground since buying it in 2007 decided to put it up for sale last spring.

But even that hasn’t gone smoothly. At first, Chinese investor Kenny Huang appeared to be the front runner to buy the club. (His name should sound familiar to Cavs fans – he advised Chinese investors bidding to acquire a 15 percent stake in the Cavaliers, although the deal did not work out).

More potential owners have come out in recent weeks, although the Sahara Group has apparently pulled out; while the interest from Yayha Kirdi has left many fans cold.

Hicks and Gillett prefer Kirdi, of course, as he is reportedly willing to pay 600 million pounds for the club, twice the value of the other offers and enough to ensure the owners of turning a profit. The other offers would allow the pair to walk away without losing any money.

It’s not surprising that Hicks and Gillett can’t even get this right. Gillett, while he was owner of the Montreal Canadians, was part of the NHL when it closed down for a year because the owners couldn’t figure out how to control themselves from overspending on contracts.

Hicks famously bid against himself as owner of the Texas Rangers to give Alex Rodriguez $250 million, and recently sold the team out of bankruptcy.

Just the duo you want running your club.

And we think the Dolans are bad.

***

Finally, more good news from the always top-notch EPL Talk.

Posted in Fernando Torres, Liverpool, Premier League, Steven Gerrard | Leave a comment
11 Aug 2010

Recalibrating on Eric Mangini

As we slowly move through the month of August*, the Browns are winding their way through training camp, the first exhibition game sits on the horizon and the opening of the season is a month away.

Things are quite a bit different in Browns training camp. At this time last year, we were dealing with controversial bus rides, a ridiculous quarterback “competition” and contract promises from the “previous regime.” Most importantly, we were all wondering what we had in coach Eric Mangini.

Contrast that to this year: no contract issues, a clear pecking order for the quarterbacks and overall peace and quiet. In fact, it’s Randy Lerner’s other team that finds itself dealing with coaching issues just days before the start of the season.

As we move toward the start of Year 2 of the Mangini Era, I’ve been re-evaluating my opinion of Mangini as a coach.

One of the biggest frustrations from last year was the way he handled the quarterback duties between Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn. Clearly, neither quarterback was going to be a Pro Bowler, but Mangini made the situation worse by not naming a starter at the outset of training camp and letting that person get as much work as possible as the team installed a new offensive system.

Instead, the QBs were bounced in and out during the preseason, with neither playing the final game. What followed during the regular season was historically bad play at the position.

Mangini deserved a large part of the blame because he was unable to create a situation where either quarterback could succeed. And that’s one of the key responsibilities of a coach: you have to be able to put your players in position to succeed. For example, if you want to run an offensive based on a short passing game, you don’t turn the team over to Derek Anderson.

Which brings us to this year. To be fair, if the coaches are responsible for helping the players to succeed, then management (Lerner and Mike Holmgren) are responsible for putting together the framework for the coaches to succeed.

That framework wasn’t in place last year, as Mangini had free reign to do what he wanted, especially after running GM George Kokinis out of town, and it proved too much for him to handle. Now, with Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert firmly in place, Mangini, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and the rest of the coaching staff can do the jobs they were hired for – nothing else.

With the national media continuing to beat the drum that Mangini is on the coaching “hot seat,” creating an atmosphere for the coaching staff to succeed is vitally important. Having Holmgren as another set of eyes is only going to help as well. While he’s not going to walk out at practice and contradict Mangini, if Holmgren spots a flaw in the way a player is performing – especially at quarterback – and corrects it, then everyone wins.

Holmgren also brought in Gil Haskell, his former offensive coordinator, to observe and offer suggestions to Daboll. The ability for Haskell to sit down with Daboll and talk to him about his game plans, why he called a certain play in a certain situation, and offer suggestions and support, can only make Daboll – and by extension the offense – better this year.

I’m still not 100 percent sold on Mangini as head coach. He has a losing record in his career, made one playoff appearance as Jets coach with Herm Edwards players, and his only success in the NFL came in a supporting role to Bill Belichick.

But with the way the team is progressing and being rebuilt from top to bottom, I feel a whole lot better than I did at this time last year. The picture is starting to fill in around the edges and Browns fans once again have something to be optimistic about.

*Isn’t August really one of the worst months of the year? If you’re a kid, the start of school is just around the corner, it’s ridiculously hot, the Indians are generally out of the playoff race, the big family vacation is over, even the pool doesn’t hold the same appeal as it did in June and July. Thankfully the Premier League starts this weekend.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Eric Mangini, Mike Holmgren, NFL | Leave a comment
10 Aug 2010
1 Comment

We Really are Spoiled

I was reading through Terry Pluto’s Sunday Q&A with Joe Tait when I came across this part of the article:

Q: Is this really going to be your last season?
A: That’s it. I’m done. A few years ago, the travel really started to get to me. I was getting off airplanes at 4 a.m. after flying all night … I realized it was time to go.

It took a few minutes for it to register, but then it hit me: Joe Tait’s retiring after next year! I’m still having some trouble processing it. Tait has always been there, doing Cavs games on the radio since the team started in 1970 (well, except for those two years when he wasn’t there, but you know what I mean). Can there be a Cavs game without Joe Tait behind the mic?

Tait is an old-school pro, someone who understands that people tune in for the game, not necessarily to just listen to him. He’s an announcer, not a personality, and he’s going to be missed once he leaves the building.

Growing up one of my friends had a 12-inch LP of The Miracle of Richfield, which featured audio from Tait’s game calls. We listened to that so many times I can still hear Tait’s words to this day.

Sunday’s New York Times had an article about how longtime broadcaster Dick Enberg has returned to calling baseball games with the San Diego Padres. In the article, Padres president Tom Garfinkel describes Enberg this way:

“Broadcasters in a way are the greatest brand ambassadors you can have,” Garfinkel said. “Dick brings a degree of credibility that’s very rare. He’s a great storyteller. He brings an enthusiasm and tells a story in a way that separates him from a lot of others.”

Those same words could be used to describe Tait. He truly is the Cavs, having been with the team through a multitude of players, coaches, wins, losses, arenas, uniform colors and logos. He is the Cavs brand.

Thinking about Tait made me realize how spoiled we have been as Cleveland fans to have the quality of announcers we’ve had over the past 40+ years.

I can remember Gib Shanley calling Browns games in the late ’70s & early ’80s, especially home games as the Browns rarely sold out at home during that period unless it was against Pittsburgh. Shanley gave way to Nev Chandler, one of the best football announcers. Who can ever forget his calls during the Browns playoff seasons of 1986 & 1987?

On the Indians side, everyone under a certain age grew up with Herb Score who, in a bigger market, would have received more acclaim than he did here in Cleveland. Hearing the voice of Tom Hamilton on a Tribe game has been the soundtrack of summer in Cleveland since 1990.

With the growth of satellite radio and more out-of-town broadcasts available, it’s easy to see that, even if the Cleveland teams haven’t always been winners over the past four decades, the local announcers have always been at the top of their games.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Joe Tait, professional announcers
06 Aug 2010

Can We Get Reception Here?

As the Browns reach the end of the first week of training camp, one of the biggest questions facing the team is the state of the passing game, both at quarterback and, even more importantly, at wide receiver.

Some are calling the Browns receivers the worst in the league. It’s hard to tell, though, just how good the receivers are, or can be, because they were paired last year with Derek Anderson (a big-armed QB who can’t hit the broad side of a barn, according to ESPN) and Brady Quinn (he of the tentative pocket presence and unwillingness to stretch the field, according to ESPN).

And therein lies the rub: were the receivers bad last year because the quarterbacks were horrid, or did the QBs suffer because Mohamed Massaquoi (34 catches), Brian Robiskie (seven catches) and company are just not that good?

We may not find out this season, either, which could prove problematic. If new quarterback Jake Delhomme struggles the way he did at the end of his tenure in Carolina, most fans will say that he’s washed up. But he may only be as good as the people he has to work with and what if what he has to work with is a group of No. 4 wide receivers?

Go back to Derek Anderson for a minute. When he had his big year in 2007, Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius were his primary targets. Those guys were able to grab all those passes that were over their heads, three yards behind them or at their feet, making Anderson look good.

The next year, Jurevicius was out with an injury, Edwards forgot how to catch the ball and Winslow was hurt and only played 10 games. Anderson – and Browns fans – suffered because of it.

I was listening to Sirius NFL’s Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan when they were at Browns camp on Thursday. Kirwan was talking about how none of the Browns receivers had the extra gear needed to get separation on a defensive back and give the quarterback an opportunity to drop the ball in.

That’s going to be a problem this year, even with the Browns hopefully committing to the run. You have to expect that defenses will be stacking the box to stop the Browns running game, and if they don’t have to worry about anyone stretching the field, things could get dicey.

It’s not all bad though, as Kirwan had some positive things to say about the Browns in his NFL.com column, writing that:

“Delhomme, a free-agent acquisition from Carolina, believes return specialist Josh Cribbs has the ability to be a “Steve Smith-type receiver” and was quick to point out the strong hands Cribbs has to snatch the ball. Cribbs is so explosive after the catch, and he will get a lot more balls thrown his way than last year when he had just 20 receptions.”

“Delhomme said he really likes Brian Robiskie, and could see the second-year wideout having a big season. He also is intrigued by a hybrid player, Evan Moore, who is listed as a tight end but is more of a big wide receiver in the mold of Joe Jurevicius.”

“Credit goes to (Mike) Holmgren, who watched the Browns finish with a flurry of four straight victories, a stretch that convinced Holmgren that (Eric) Mangini had not lost the team and kept the players motivated in an otherwise forgetful season. Benefits of Holmgren’s first big decision is evident around training camp; the construction of a winning attitude, for one, can be seen within the franchise, from the coaches down to the players and all of the support staff.”

“The Browns have put second-round pick T.J. Ward right into the starting lineup. He showed in Thursday’s team scrimmage that he likes getting up in the box and being aggressive against the run. (Scott) Fujita said Ward is special.”

Clearly, while the situation isn’t ideal, things could be worse and there is reason for hope. We’ll find out more a week from today when the Browns open the exhibition season against Green Bay.

***

Sure he is.

***

A great read on what NFL training camps are really like.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Jake Delhomme, Pat Kirwan, wide receivers | Leave a comment

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